3D graphics data is widely used in multimedia applications such as video gaming, virtual reality, and scientific visualization. With rapid advances in digital acquisition technology, 3D models with millions of points are becoming increasingly common.
Traditional mesh representation of 3D objects requires both geometry and topology to be specified. By contrast, in point-based 3D model representation, processing and rendering are performed without the connectivity constraint and objects of complex topology can be more easily represented. Thus, point-based 3D model representation can be an ideal choice for 3D models with millions of points. With such a large amount of data, efficient compression of 3D models becomes very important.